Alternative Famous Firsts
Brian Phillips
PM Drive (3-7p weekdays); "History Of Alternative" host/curator (8-12noon Sunday)
WKQX (Q101)/Chicago
Z100/NYC (1995)
Depeche Mode / Giants Stadium (1990)
Violent Femmes (self-titled). It was a fixture in the cassette Walkman for at least a year.
Dave Navarro (phoner) 2003 - WHTG (New Jersey). We were chatting for about 10 minutes having a fun conversation (I believe he was calling from a tour bus in Cincinnati) when he stopped and asked, "Did the interview start?". I said, "yes, 10 minutes ago" so, he continued in a more serious, "prepared answers and copy points" tone and vibe. The first 10 minutes were much more interesting.
There may have been a few during those early Jersey days...none of them MY fault (of course). Better dead air story: WRXP in 2008. I left the studio for a minute (around 10:30p or so). The cleaning person entered the studio to vacuum the floor and inadvertently knocked the station off-the-air. There was roughly 4 minutes of dead air (it seemed like an hour).
Jay Michaels
Brand Manager
WHJT-HD2 (Rock 93.1)/Jackson, MS (also CHR Y101 & AC Mix 987)
My first job was incredible. I was at UT Austin and interned at KHFI KISS FM in the late 80s and eventually elevated to Music Director and Nights and found my calling. What an incredible time to be in radio. The phones never stopped. I still have this love and passion to this day.
The Police in Denver as a kid. The Go-Go’s opened and at the moment the Go-Go's became my all time favorite band even to this day.
This is a hard one but I would say the Grease Soundtrack plus early 80s Human League, Eurythmics, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Siouxie And The Banshees, Go-Gos, Duran Duran and Adam and the Ants. It's actually hard to pick out the very first as I was obsessed with vinyl and spent a lot of time at the famous Wax Trax in Denver buying tons of records and picture discs. Moving around with college and jobs I had to get rid of most of it which I really regret today! I was an 80s New Wave kid!
It’s hard to think back that far but the interviews really kicked in the early 90s from Pearl Jam to Jewel Sugar Ray to New Kids On The Block. So many incredible iconic artists from all formats.
This happened doing the night show in Austin at KISSFM in the late 80s doing the night show and working the reel to reel machine. Talk about complicated, running callers back all night was an experience and the dead air always happened when the tape on the reel-to-reel snapped. Complete panic! I still have dead air nightmares now to this day which I think many radio people can relate to!
Matt Minguez
Program Director
KYMK/Lafayette, LA
Part-time sports writer for a local newspaper.
Aaron Carter in 2000. First rock concert was 3 Doors Down, Seether, and Hoobastank.
Oh man, probably a Nickelback, Green Day, or Fall Out Boy record (those were the hits in my era).
I got to interview River Gibson of the band LVVRs, a local band here in South Louisiana. Really great experience to hear about his success and the band's new music.
One of my first days doing music radio (started in radio as a sports talk host), I opened my mic and started to talk, feeling really confident about what I was doing. That was, until I noticed I didn't switch the system from being run by the computer to manual. So none of what I said went over the air. Needless to say, my confidence went away quickly. HAHAHA
